New York Hop Farm.
Just a few tips to start your beer making project..
Craft beer is booming these days, so hop farming is booming as well. It must be because of the main ingredients to make beer is hops. Having well drained loamy soil is key for farming tactics, also a pH of 6.5 to 8 for best results. Some fertilizers like potassium, phosphates and nitrogen is essential. Those folks who like the do it yourself projects use manure compost in combination with commercial fertilizers.
This is all great but now you may need a place to start your hop farm. As noted in a recent property there were a total of 180 acres, however only seven acres were being used for farming the hops. This indicated that you may only need 5 or ten acres to accomplish your goals. Buying a 180-acre farm may not fit your green thumb desires, however if you need more land look at larger tracts. This could diversify you land investment for other purposes as well.
People are really getting into this hop farming. This is a recent quote from a grower in a yahoo group talking about the experiences on his farm so the help on your farm is close by…
“Yes, I have trellises that go 16' in the air. The strings start about 12 inches above ground. For all my other plants ... the bines get about 16" long quickly and I take the strongest and twist'em around the twine and they just take off. But the Test plants aren't sending off any vines that would climb ... the just look like ground cover ... nothing over 2" long and that is mostly leaves!”
Look at other considerations such as the area that you are working your farm, seem like 12-20 feet of space is needed. The more growth the better your harvest. Vertical growth is the best, commercial farms do this, reach for the sun is what some may say. Be careful of the wind, some type of wind shied may work better for your crop. The 180-acre farm mentioned earlier may be a good idea because there could be a forest of trees that surround your hop farm.
Here is a suggestion…get involved with a hop farmer’s association. This may help you understand more from folks who are doing the same things in the hop growing arena. By doing a simple search the hop farm community the chances of finding experts will be good.
Last get all the information you can, become an expert. The more you learn about making beer the more you beer and maybe even the better beer will be…Hop to it…
Comments(1)